Boka Boka: An authentic Chamorro restaurant

Eskabeche is one of the customer favorites at Boka Boka Restaurant. (Contributed Photo)

Marianne Teregeyo was very specific when she first envisioned the idea of opening her own restaurant. She and her husband have long noted the lack of restaurants on Saipan that exclusively offer local dishes.
If you wanted to taste local food, you’d have to go to local baby showers, weddings, birthday parties, barbecues, or to what locals celebrate as a deceased person’s new life, the Lisayu (the Chamorro term for rosary).

“My family and I have always been eating out and sometimes we’d want local food and the only possible way to get local food is either at a local restaurant or a party,” she said.

That’s when the idea of opening Boka Boka came to her—as a restaurant where families can enjoy homemade dishes while having conversations over breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

The newly opened restaurant, located at the ground floor of the CDA building (formerly Morgen Building) along Beach Road in San Jose, is now fast becoming the go-to place whenever one craves for authentic Chamorro dishes.

As soon as you enter the front door, an invigorating smell of local style dishes tickles your nose and teases the palate. You’d be sure to get the personal treatment from the Teregeyos as Marianne and her husband are the restaurant’s only staff, with one working in the kitchen and the other serving and entertaining customers.

The menu, which is printed in both Chamorro and English, features a variety of food choices for any hungry customer craving for local food. There are 40 Chamorro entrees, three soup dishes, three local-style desserts, 17 side dishes, five choices of pancakes and waffles, two local noodle dishes, and 11 types of drinks.

The most ordered dish is the eskabeche, which is a dish of poached or fried fish with vegetables in a vinegar sauce with the addition of a thickening agent such as flour or corn starch. Other customer favorites are kelaguin and katdun pika (usually cooked with chicken and added spice).

Among the drinks they serve is fresh coconut juice, which is a mere $2. This is something you normally don’t see in restaurants.

Saipan Tribune had the chance to taste the eskabeche and it tasted really good. The sauce on top of the parrotfish, with added string beans and fina’denne, made the dish a delight. To top it all, the fried Oreos for the side dish was great and sweet appetite filler. (Note: The eskabeche was quite a lot, Saipan Tribune wrapped it up for later.)

Another great thing about Boka Boka is that seasonal local dishes are also available such as local-style octopus and many more.

Customers can also order food for takeout for special occasions.

Teregeyo said that tourists also visit Boka Boka and even want to return to the restaurant if they ever visit Saipan again. “We’ve had tourists come in and later ask if they can give information to their friends when they visit.”

Aside from tourists, Teregeyo said local customers and travelers from Guam often count as the restaurant’s main customers.

Teregeyo hopes that Boka Boka will be able to make its debut at the Taste of the Marianas in 2015.

For more information or to reserve a table, call 235-2652. For more updates, visit their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/Bokabokasaipan.